Vatican OKs St. Louis excommunication

Thursday

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Vatican has upheld Archbishop Raymond Burke's orders to excommunicate the lay board at a Polish-heritage parish that has been at odds with the archdiocese for years.

In a May 15 letter to Burke, Cardinal William Levada said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has rejected the board's appeal challenging Burke's December 2005 decision to excommunicate them because they persisted in "schism," or breaking with the church.

The archdiocese released the letter yesterday on its Web site.

The six board members refused to turn over church property and assets to the archdiocese. They later hired the Rev. Marek Bozek to replace a priest Burke removed months earlier over the parish assets disagreement.

The letter cited technical problems with the appeal, as well as evidence that the board broke with the church by independently appointing its own priest. Church law says only a bishop can appoint priests to parishes.

"In a gradual process," Levada wrote, "the parish has been removed from the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary. This can be seen as an expression of the refusal of the members of the board to subject themselves to the lawfully constituted Ecclesiastical authority."

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